Margarita

Margarita’s story turns a husband’s dream into a warning that comes true, and her refusal to trust it leaves a lasting mark on her life. Young, strikingly beautiful, and resistant to other people’s judgment, she dismisses Talano di Molese’s concern as a scheme to conceal his own supposed infidelity. When she secretly enters the wood he urged her to avoid, a wolf attacks her just as he dreamed; though shepherds rescue her, the wounds disfigure her permanently.

Identity and Introduction

Margarita is introduced by Pampinea as a young woman married to Talano di Molese, a respected man. She is described as fair above all others, but also as contrary and ill-tempered: she will not follow anyone else’s judgment, and others cannot easily please her. Talano finds her difficult to endure, yet the account says he has no choice but to put up with her.

This description establishes the tension behind the episode. Talano’s warning is presented as genuine concern for his wife, notwithstanding the difficulties of their marriage. Margarita, however, interprets his words through suspicion rather than trust.

The Dream and Margarita’s Response

While the couple are staying at Talano’s country estate, he dreams that Margarita is walking in a nearby wood. A fierce wolf springs from a thicket, seizes her by the throat, and tries to carry her away. In the dream she escapes its jaws, but her throat and face are badly injured.

The next morning, Talano recounts the dream and advises her not to leave the house that day, or at least to keep away from the wood. Margarita rejects the warning. She suspects that Talano has invented it to keep her from discovering a meeting with another woman, and privately resolves to go to the wood and find out what he is doing. Although she tells him she will heed his advice, she leaves secretly through another door after he has gone out.

The Attack and Its Consequences

Margarita waits hidden in the thickest part of the wood, watching for someone to appear and giving no thought to danger. A great wolf comes suddenly from a nearby thicket and fastens onto her throat. Its grip is so tight that she can scarcely call for help. The animal carries her off as if she were a lamb, and she would have been throttled had shepherds not encountered it, shouted at it, and forced it to release her.

The shepherds recognize Margarita and take her home. Physicians tend her for a long time, and she recovers, but not completely: her throat and part of her face remain marred. The beauty that distinguished her before the attack is gone, and she becomes ashamed to appear where she might be seen.

Regret and Narrative Significance

Afterward, Margarita bitterly regrets her contrary response and her refusal to put faith in Talano’s dream when trusting it would have cost her nothing. Pampinea presents the episode while discussing the truth sometimes disclosed by dreams, making Margarita’s experience the consequence of a warning disregarded and then realized in precise physical detail.

The story’s reversal rests on the gap between Talano’s words and Margarita’s interpretation of them. She takes an expression of concern for an attempt to deceive her, acts on that suspicion, and enters the very wood named in the dream. Her survival does not undo the consequence: the threatened injury becomes permanent disfigurement, leaving her regret tied to a changed appearance and a diminished willingness to be seen.